I hope you all have a fun, blessed, and safe summer.

Unless UFOs kidnap the Pope, or the British PM’s mind gets uploaded into the Internet, we’ll be posting full time again by the end of August.

Again, thank you for reading.

Virgil Goode, a former Virginia senator and 5th District congressman “said he’s won ballot access in 17 states, including Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming — but not yet his home state of Virginia,” reports Roanoke.com.

Goode was selected as the party’s 2012 presidential nominee on April 21, 2012 at the 2012 Constitution Party National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 2008, the Constitution Party appeared on 37 state ballots. Goode is hoping to bump it up to 40 this year. And like every political candidate — particularly local and third party candidates — he’s gotta watch his budget.

“We’ve been going to some states, getting signatures and then calling around and mapping out a strategy,” Goode said. “We want to try to go to several states close together at one time rather than make a trip. It’s a lot less costly that way.”

In Virginia, reports Roanoke.com, Goode needs to secure at least 10,000 signatures from qualified voters. This includes at least 400 from each of the state’s 11 congressional districts. The deadline is noon Aug. 24.

“We’re working real hard in the 5th, 6th and the 9th [congressional districts] to build up our numbers there,” Goode said. “We want to get at least 600 to 800 in each district.”

Goode has a very eclectic party history. According to an AP article posted at wusa9.com, he served in the state legislature and was elected to Congress as a Democrat before becoming an independent and later a Republican. Goode joined the Constitution Party a few years ago, and filed to run as a presidential candidate this past February.

According to Pye’s post, the first few days were pretty stressful for him. Seems they put him to work lobbying delegations in Idaho, Iowa, and Georgia.

The whole write-up is interesting — if you’re into this kind-of thing — because he briefly explains how the processes work. From candidates seeking tokens from delegates, to the debate and the voting that follows, to the fact that the LP runs vice presidential candidates separately (as opposed to the vp pick being chosen by the presidential candidate).

From his post:

On Friday evening, Gov. Johnson and R. Lee Wrights squared off in a debate before convention delegates (you can watch it here). The 2008 debate saw a number of candidates with varying viewpoints of libertarianism and the direction of the Libertarian Party. The debate between Johnson and Wrights showed the clear differences in approach to politics. While Wrights was lobbing one-liners and soundbites to delegates, Johnson was discussing a more political approach. Some friends were complaining that Wrights was only interested in appealing to Libertarians, others said that, since this was our party’s primary, a more “red meat” approach was necessary; no different from Democratic and Republican campaigns.

Most, if not all, of the folks that I talked afterward said that both sides did well articulating their message, and that they hadn’t changed their minds.

Isn’t that the way debates tend to go? While I know candidates hope that debates will bring more support their way, I tend to think that, in practice, debates are really more about convincing people who are already supporters that they made the right choice.

Anyhoo, if you want to read about the Libertarian National Convention from the point of view of someone who was put to work there, check out Jason Pye’s post: “Brief recap of the Libertarian National Convention”

This weekend’s ’60 Minutes’ features a talk with a former CIA man, who says that there are more foreign spies in the U.S. than ever before — including the peak of the Cold War!

From the CBS article which, yes, is also just a plug for this weekend’s program (I’m planning to see it, though):

A former top CIA covert officer who ran one of the spy agency’s secret domestic networks says there are now more foreign spies on U.S. soil than at the peak of the Cold War. The former officer, Hank Crumpton, who also served as deputy director of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center and led the U.S. response to 9/11, speaks candidly to Lara Logan about his life as a spy on 60Minutes, Sunday, May 13at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

As the chief of the CIA’s National Resources Division, the highly-sensitive, secret domestic operation, he conducted counter-intelligence within the U.S. “If you look at the threat that is imposed upon our nation every day, some of the major nation states — China in particular — [have] very sophisticated intelligence operations, very aggressive operations against the U.S.,” says Crumpton. “I would hazard to guess there are more foreign intelligence officers inside the U.S. working against U.S. interests now than even at the height of the Cold War,” he tells Logan. “It’s a critical issue.”

Also critical in Crumpton’s mind is the danger posed by al Qaeda, especially factions operating in North Africa. “I’m particularly concerned about al Qaeda in Yemen, which is fractured as a nation state,” he says. “The Sahel, if you look at al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, they pose a threat, and in Somalia. Those are the places I’d be concerned,” says Crumpton.

Crumpton says al Qaeda could make a comeback in Afghanistan if the U.S. withdraws too quickly. The current situation there reminds him of a “Greek tragedy,” he tells Logan. “You’ve got so many mistakes on the U.S. side, and you’ve got a feckless, corrupt government on the Afghan side. I am really more pessimistic now than I’ve been in a long time,” says Crumpton.

The retired spy also tells Logan about the early months in Afghanistan after 9/11, when the U.S. effort to topple the Taliban was led by the CIA and about how two administrations’ failure to let CIA assets kill Osama bin Laden led to the development of predator drones.

“The world’s most mysterious manuscript” was discovered May 11, 1912. This year will mark 100 years since it’s discovery — and the manuscript is still as enigmatic as ever.

Click images to view larger

A celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Voynich manuscript will be held in Rome this Friday. Forensic research, historical presentations and recent interpretations of the language and drawings will be examined and presented during the event. Details posted at voynich.nu/100, which includes a list of speakers and other attendants.

The program page explains:

According to printed sources, the Voynich MS was discovered and purchased by Wilfrid M. Voynich in the Villa Mondragone, near Frascati, Italy, in 1912. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of this event, a celebration is organised in the same Villa on 11 May 2012. It will take place in the Sala degli Svizzeri, which can host up to 170 people. The event will include presentations, a lunch and coffee breaks, and the opportunity to meet and discuss with fellow Voynich researchers.

Can’t go to Rome? Mark the anniversary at home, by viewing an online high-resolution scan of the Voynich Manuscript.

Oh, and you can also mark the day with a chuckle at this XKCD comic:

Not only did Obama lose some 40% of the vote, 10 counties, and at least 1 delegate to an inmate — the inmate isn’t even in West Virginia — he’s in Texas. Inmate No. 11593-051 must be pretty charismatic. Or, more likely, voters in W. Virginia are trying to send a message.

“I voted against Obama,” said Ronnie Brown, a 43-year-old electrician from Cross Lanes who called himself a conservative Democrat. “I don’t like him. He didn’t carry the state before and I’m not going to let him carry it again.”

When asked which presidential candidate he voted for, Brown said, “That guy out of Texas.”

Inmate Keith Judd, 53, is serving 17 years for extortion at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution. He was sentenced in 1999 for making threats against the University of New Mexico and is due to be released on June 24 next year.

So if he were elected president, he’d have to be sworn in at the prison.

With 93% of precincts reporting, Obama was receiving just under 60% of the vote to Judd’s 40%. Judd had won ten counties, according to BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, and Obama lost at least one delegate to the Texan inmate.

Ed Morrissey at HotAir points out that the DNC will likely rule that Judd’s inmate status will disqualify him, thus Obama will keep all delegates. But, gosh, this is still a bit embarrassing for Team Obama.

EDIT: Just wanted to add this as an afterthought…

Add to this story the recent hubbub about Team Obama not delivering the overflowing Ohio stadium as promised — something that’s “haunting” Obama as he tries to gain some campaign momentum.

Obama supporters might dismiss such criticism as Breitbart.com material, but the mainstream media reported on it too (albeit, with less exaggeration). And I am sure this inmate story will be shrugged off by supporters, too.

But Democratic strategist James Carville is pleading with party supporters to “WTFU” (wake the fuck up): “What are you smoking? What are you drinking? What are you snorting or just what in the hell are you thinking? … Newsflash: Nothing is in the bag.”

He makes some really great points, but my favorite part of Carville’s op-ed is:

You can shoot five Bin Ladens, you can save 10,000 banks and 20 car companies, even pass the most sweeping legislation in modern American history; if people don’t think that you are connected to their lives and are fighting for their interests they will vote your tush out of office in a nano-second. For historical reference see Winston Churchill election of 1945 and President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Of course, Morris can now count himself among the many who have done their best to crack the legendary mystery. He makes his case in his book, titled Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman, which he wrote with his late father, Byron Morris.

Lizzie was wife of royal physician Sir John Williams, himself seen as a prime suspect by many other crime experts.

Others have pointed to compelling evidence that Lizzie Williams was the killer. But Morris says the theory has not proved popular among many Ripper experts. So while making this case, Morris and his father sifted through thousands of medical and legal documents to draw-up a compelling case for branding Lizzie the killer.

Morris told the Birmingham Mail: “The case for a woman murderer is overwhelming. But unfortunately it does not sit well in some quarters where such a theory flies in the face of long-held beliefs.”

“There’s absolutely no doubt that the Ripper was a woman,” Morris added. “But because everyone believes that the murderer was a man, all the evidence that points to a woman has always been ignored.”

Here’s something interesting, from a 2008 article in the Independent:

The chief suspects, who included a barrister, a Polish boot-maker and a Russian confidence trickster, were all men. But Frederick Abberline, the detective who led the investigation, thought it possible the killer was a woman. This was because the fifth victim, Mary Kelly, was “seen” by witnesses hours after she was killed. Abberline thought this was the murderer running away, in Kelly’s clothes.

Members of the Nevada political class seem to really dig Google’s self-driving cars. Governor Brian Sandoval himself took a spin in last summer, in Carson City, and was grinning ear to ear. (Though, that was also likely for the benefit of the assembled photographers).

The 2011 Legislature passed the first law in the nation to permit testing of driverless cars. And now the Las Vegas Sun reports that Google received the first license Monday from the state Department of Motor Vehicles to test the autonomous vehicles. It is believed to be the first such license issued in the country.

I would love to drive one myself; they sound cool as hell. Although I wouldn’t trust Google’s cars to bring me to certain political events.

Mitt Romney is already the winner. Isn’t that enough? Not for some party activists.

We know that party activists will work hard to shut-out perceived outsiders. That kinda of in-group/out-group behavior can be found anywhere — in churches, the work place, sports. But it’s a mentality that becomes especially poisonous in politics.

I know this. You know this. We’ve all seen it.

But holy crap, I’ve been blown away by the reaction to Ron Paul within the Republican Party, and within the media. Sure, his opponents don’t want him to win. It is a contest after all. But they don’t want him to be perceived as having won at all, and it’s become some kind of crazed obsession with some of these people.

Mitt Romney is considered the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Team Obama had been leveling their attacks at Romney way back when people were wondering if Santorum or Newt might get it. I think most commentators in the media have been betting that Romney will be the GOP pick. The presidential race, for most of us, is already about Obama and Romney.

So news that Ron Paul won a majority of delegates in Nevada, and Maine this weekend must have some Republican activists (purists?) with their panties in a bind, because it might not be as neat and perfect as they like.

At least one tried to prevent this from happening in Nevada. An activist was caught handing out fake Ron Paul delegate ballots. If delegates had attempted to vote using one those ballots, those votes might have been discounted.

In the video below, you can see the fraudster getting busted.

This isn’t the first instance of fraud during this primary. In the NH elections, this past January, there were accusations that “dead people” had allegedly been casting votes.

In Maine, some accusations were leveled directly at pro-Romney activists for other dirty tricks. [video]

Now I don’t know that this is “Republican party dirty tricks,” and I don’t know this is a part of some organized effort by the Mitt Romney campaign. (Others are spinning such conspiracy theories, though.)

But I think this illustrates a few things. One, voting fraud isn’t the exclusive territory of Democrats (although none of this is on the same level as, say, ACORN). And, two, obviously some Republican activists are getting really anxious and desperate to make sure this election has a favorable turn-out.

To me, this isn’t about quote-the Republicans, or quote-the Mitt Romney people. But I do think this election is making a lot of people frightened, angry, anxious … and kinda’ stupid.

The projection, reports USA Today, warns that 42% of Americans may end up obese by 2030 — 11% could be severely obese.

“If nothing is done, it’s going to hinder efforts for health care cost containment,” says Justin Trogdon, a research economist with RTI International, a non-profit organization in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.

Reuters is reporting that the Institute of Medicine refutes the idea that obesity is largely the result of a lack of willpower on the part of individuals. Furthermore, reports Reuters, the IOM issued an “ambitious 478-page report” that “was released at the Weight of the Nation conference, a three-day meeting hosted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

At this meeting hosted by a government agency, the IOM made numerous recommendations on how government solutions can be implemented. And politicians will be talking about funding government programs this summer.

“People have heard the advice to eat less and move more for years, and during that time a large number of Americans have become obese,” committee member Shiriki Kumanyika of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine told Reuters.

“There has been a tendency to look for a single solution, like putting a big tax on soda or banning marketing (of unhealthy food) to children,” panel chairman Dan Glickman, a senior fellow of the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former secretary of the Department of Agriculture, told Reuters. “What this report says is this is not a one-solution problem.”

Right. In other words, we need many solutions — all them, I presume, oughtta’ be government “solutions.”

The panel identifies taxing sugar-sweetened beverages as a “potential action,” noting that “their link to obesity is stronger than that observed for any other food or beverage.”

Jeeezus. Which reminds me of this delicious rant, from Penn and Teller’s ‘Bullshit’ program. (NSFW, due to the many f-bombs.)